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Scrum supports the idea that employees are self motivated. They seek to accept greater responsibility and deliver greater value when self organized. That’s why the preferred leadership style in scrum is ‘servant leadership’. The scrum principle 2 focuses on the needs of the people i.e. scrum team members. This does not mean that you need to give a free hand to the team.

In fact, it means that once the product vision is defined in the project vision process the three core roles of the scrum, the product owner, scrum master, and scrum team are identified, the requirements are refined, epics and user stories are created. The team’s judgement and expertise are used to assess the input to execute the project plan. These judgements and expertise are applied to all technical and management aspects during the create deliverables process.

Although prioritization is primarily done by the product owner who represents the customer voice, self-organized team is involved in the task breakdown and estimation. During sprint process each member determines what work he or she is going to do. During a sprint, if a team member needs help, it is addressed in the daily standup meeting. The scrum team and scrum master demonstrate product increments during demonstrate and validate sprint process. Product owner can visualize a working product after every sprint.

Goals of Self-Organized Teams

Understand project vision and values

Estimate user stories and assign tasks to themselves

Create tasks individually

Apply and leverage expertise

Deliver tangible results

Resolve problems together

Clarify discrepancies or doubts

Remain open to learning

Upgrade knowledge and skills

Maintain stability of the team

In summary, today’s worker has much more knowledge to offer and he can only contribute when allowed flexibility and self-organization.